appears to be a delicacy globally. I have never known this how strange
Guōbā (
simplified Chinese: 锅巴;
traditional Chinese: 鍋巴;
pinyin:
guō bā) is eaten as a snack, used as an ingredient in dishes with thick sauces, or served in soups and stews.
Guoba (lit. "pan adherents"), sometimes known as
mi guoba (
米鍋巴, lit. rice guoba) is a
Chinese food ingredient consisting of scorched rice. Traditionally
guoba forms during the boiling of rice over direct heat from a flame. This results in the formation of a crust of scorched rice on the bottom of the
wok or cooking vessel. This scorched rice has a firm and crunchy texture with a slight toasted flavour, and is sometimes eaten as a snack.
Guoba is also used as an ingredient in many Chinese dishes with thick sauces, since the bland taste of the scorched rice takes on the flavour of the sauces.
Guoba is also served in soups and stews and prominently featured in
Sichuan cuisine. Since demand for
guoba outstrips traditional production and modern ways of cooking rice (in electric
rice cookers) do not produce it,
guoba has been commercially manufactured since the late 20th century.[
citation needed]
In Hong Kong and Cantonese-speaking areas of China, scorched rice is known as
faan ziu (
飯焦, lit. "rice scorch").
Indonesia[edit]

Large
intip sold in
Cirebon
In
Indonesia, especially
Central Java, scorched rice is called
intip. It is a specialty of the
Wonogiri Regency area and served as a cracker. The rice cracker is made from the hardened semi-burnt rice that sticks to the inner bottom of rice-cooking vessels. These cooking vessels are filled with water to loosen up the stuck rice. After it is separated from the cooking vessel, the stuck rice is sun-dried until it loses all of its liquid contents. The dried sticky rice is later deep-fried to create a crispy rice cracker.
In Indonesia there is a similar rice cracker called
rengginang. Unlike
intip, however, it is not made from scorched rice salvaged from the bottom of a rice cooking vessel, but created separately from steamed sticky rice, boiled, seasoned, made into a flat and rounded shape, and sun-dried prior to deep-frying.
[1]
Iran[edit]
Cherry rice dish with tahdig or albaloo polow ba tahdiq maast.
Rice, bread or potato crust from the bottom of the pot is called
tahdig in
Iran.
Tahdig (
Persian: ته دیگ,
tah "bottom" +
dīg "pot") is a specialty of
Iranian cuisine consisting of crisp, caramelized
[2] rice taken from the bottom of the pot in which the rice (
chelow) is cooked.
[3] It is traditionally served to guests at a meal.
[4] Ingredients commonly added to
tahdig include yogurt and saffron, bread, potato, tomato, and fruits such as
sour cherry.
Variations of
tahdig include placing thin vegetable slices at the bottom of the pot, so they crisp up instead of the rice; these vegetables include potato, carrots, and lettuce.
[5] Iranians sometimes apply this cooking method to spaghetti as well, providing a hardened base.
[6]
Iraq[edit]
Iraqi rice cooking is similar to the method used for Persian
chelow,
[7] a multi-step process intended to produce tender, fluffy grains of rice.
[7] A prominent aspect of Iraqi rice cooking is the
hikakeh, a crisp bottom crust.
[7] It differs slightly from the Persian
tahdig, which is a single thick piece; the
hikakeh contains some loose rice as well.
[7] Before serving, the
hikakeh is broken into pieces so that everyone is provided with some along with the fluffy rice.
[7]
Japan[edit]

A traditional
kamado in a Japanese museum
Okoge (お焦げ) is eaten with vegetables or moistened with water, soup, or tea.
Okoge (お焦げ, おこげ) is Japanese food, usually rice, that has been scorched or blackened.
Until electric
rice cookers came into common use in the 20th century, rice in Japan was cooked in a
kamado, a traditional stove heated by wood or charcoal. Because regulating the heat of a wood or charcoal fire is more difficult, a layer of rice at the bottom of the pot would often be slightly burned during cooking; this layer, called
okoge, was not discarded, but was eaten with vegetables or moistened with water, soup, or tea.
Okoge is still eaten in Japanese cuisine, and is an important part of the
kaiseki meal served at
tea ceremonies, where it is typically served with hot water and pickles as the final course. It has a crispy texture and a nutty flavour.
Because the cooking temperature of modern electric rice cookers is precisely controlled,
okoge does not usually form naturally during the cooking process. However, there are rice cookers on the market in Japan that have an
okoge setting.
Okoge can also be made by scorching cooked rice in a frying pan.
Korea[edit]

boiled nurungji

Commercially sold
nurungji snack
Nurungji (누룽지) is eaten as a snack, infused in hot water to make
sungnyung (scorched rice tea), or reboiled in water to make
juk (porridge).
Nurungji[8] (
hangul: 누룽지) or scorched rice
[8] is a
traditional Korean food made of scorched rice. After boiling and serving rice, a thin crust of scorched rice will usually be left in the bottom of the cooking pot. This yellowed scorched state is described as
nureun (눌은) in Korean;
nurungji derives from this adjective.
[9]
Nurungji can be eaten in its crisp state as a snack or as an after meal rice tea by adding hot water,
[10] or reboiled with water to make
nureun bap (눌은밥) or
nurungji bap (누룽지밥).
[11] Nurungji in its broad sense also refers to the crisp crust that forms at the bottom of the pots and pans when cooking various rice dishes such as
dolsot bibimbap (돌솥 비빔밥) and
bokkeumbap.
Nurungji is traditionally known for its medicinal attributes. According to records in the 17th century medical book
Dongui Bogam,
nurungji was called
chwigunban (취건반, 炊乾飯) and considered as a remedy "when food does not swallow easily, upsets the stomach and induces vomiting".
[12] It is also being lauded as a well-being (sic) food in
South Korea.
[13]
South Korean companies made
nurungji available in a various pre-packaged forms around the mid-2000s.
[13] Besides sweet fried
nurungji snacks and instant
nurungji to make
nureunbap, many
nurungji flavor products were also developed such as candies and tea.
[14] Nurungi is also being used as an ingredient for a variety of new dishes like
nurungji baeksuk and
nurungji pizza.
[13]
Mentions of
nurungji in folklore are common, the most famous being a folk song recognizing the difficulties of memorizing the
Thousand Character Classic. The lines are changed from the original chant to a clever rhyme that loosely translates into "sky
cheon (天), earth
ji (地),
nurungji in the
gamasot (cauldron pot)". (Korean: "하늘 천, 땅 지, 가마 솥에 누룽지").
[15]
Latin America[edit]
Scorched rice is known as
cucayo,
pegao,
cocolón,
concolón,
raspa,
raspado, “bunbun” (Jamaica) and
concón(Dominican Republic) in the Caribbean. In
Colombian cuisine, scorched rice is called
cucayo,
pega or
pego. It is often consumed with vegetable toppings as a cracker, or served in soups. It is also eaten alone or used to make leftovers. In
Dominican cuisine, scorched rice is called
concón, though this word can refer to the crunchy, toasted underside of other food types, as well. In
Puerto Rican cuisine, scorched rice is called
pegao. In Ecuador,
kukayu (cucayo) is the name given to food items that are meant for travel, derived from
kukayu (
Quechua for a ration of
coca). In
Trinidad and Tobago cuisine and other English speaking Caribbean countries, scorched rice at the bottom of the pot is called
bun bun.
[16][17][18]
Philippines